Wino

I took this picture the day before Thanksgiving but completely forgot about it until last night when I opened a bottle of wine. Before I went to the grocery store that day to get all of my turkey dinner fixings, I stopped at the liquor store next door to get a bottle of wine for our meal. While I was there I decided to just stock up on bottles to have for future events and special occasions (like last night's card-making session at home on a freezing cold evening). The selection took me at least 30 minutes, because my method of picking out wines is not exactly scientific or organized. I pick wines almost exclusively because of their fun, silly or interesting labels. Clearly, I'm not much of a wine connoisseur!

While I might not buy expensive (obviously) or very highly rated wines, you can't tell me that some of these labels aren't totally fun!! First of all, I had no idea Paul Newman had a wine. Second, anything with chocolate in the name has to be good. I've also always had a thing for monkeys, so the Barrel of Monkeys was a no-brainer for me. Fat Bastard and Wrongo Dongo were just funny, and I liked the hand print on the Crios label. Fetzer just ended up in my box because I couldn't find any white zin that was interesting!

The funny thing is, I think I forgot to add the bottle that we drank for Thanksgiving dinner to this picture! I remember it was a pinot noir and that it was good, but I don't remember what it was. I guess that's why I'll always go back to choosing wine because of its label!

Welcome Home, Old Friend

This was a picture Chad took of me as soon as I got home from work today, right after I changed into my comfy clothes.


Can you tell how incredibly happy I am? Can you see what it is that brought such a huge smile to my face? My wonderful, beloved sweatshirt that I once thought was lost has come home with a brand new zipper!!

I dropped my dear sweatshirt off at the alterations shop the week that we left for Dallas, and even though it was finished a week or so ago I finally just picked it up after work this afternoon. Just in time too--it was bone-chillingly, mind-numbingly cold today. I can't tell you how good it felt to put that sweatshirt on and zip it up when I got home!

It seemed slightly ridiculous that I just paid $22 for a new zipper in a sweatshirt that I'm pretty sure cost me $17 at least three years ago. It seemed slightly ridiculous--that is, until I put my sweatshirt on and remembered how warm, snuggly, comfy and reversible it is. You'll think I'm exaggerating, but I really did kind of give it a hug when I put it away tonight. Chad witnessed it, and I think he was slightly embarrassed for me. I can't help it--I love it so much!!

Why I Need A Craft Room

Clearly in the last week I’ve been too busy for blogging, and this—the incredible mess in the craft/guitar/extra bedroom room—is the reason why. I've been spending every evening and every other free moment working on my Christmas greetings!

As some of my friends know, I have several crafty traditions during the holidays, one of them being the design/creation of my own Christmas cards. As I mentioned in my post on Thanksgiving, this year I’m breaking all personal records with regard to the timeliness of my holiday mailing. Hooray for ME, Billy!! (If you’re not Chad, identify that reference and you’ll win big brownie points from me, which are worth a lot, I know.)

Tonight I finished up about another 20 cards to add to the 30 or so that I finished during the week. I have the remaining 30 or so about 80% complete, so I should be 100% finished in the next couple of evenings! It will be such a relief getting them done early this year for a change--now I just have to worry about my Christmas shopping, which is only about 5% complete!

While I am getting my cards done more quickly this year, I will admit that my design/execution left a lot to be desired. There are some years that I love the way my cards turn out--this year is not one of them. They're kind of crappy, but it actually wasn't because I rushed through the design process. I decided this year that I would try to use up excess and leftover materials from other craft projects, so my design options were a little limited. I found about 30 leftover white envelopes and a bunch of white card stock, so generic white was my boring starting point. I used tons of scraps of colors and patterns that were leftover from previous years, but since the only adhesive I had in the house was Elmer's glue, all of my cards got warped and wrinkly as they dried! I think they look pretty awful, but I'm trying to remind myself that they were part of a cleanup/recycling job, so I was helping to save trees by not buying more paper that I really didn't need!

I did end up having to go out and buy more envelopes and about 10 sheets of paper and some better adhesive over the weekend, but I was able to get more than halfway finished with just the paper and rubber stamps I already had around the house. Because I used so many scraps, just about every card was different than the last, so some were a little better than others. Here are just a few examples of what my friends and family will be getting (or have already gotten) in the mail.




On the inside, there's another stamp with a little decoration of one kind or another, and then of course our annual Christmas picture.



So if and when you get our Christmas card this year, try not to laugh too much! Just think of it as being good for the environment!

Breaking Tree Tradition

Several times in the last few years I've blogged about our traditional trip to a local Christmas tree farm to pick out one of the lovely white pines that I'm so crazy about. As we made our plans to go pick out our tree today after church, Chad suggested that maybe we should break with tradition and stop by one of the many stores in town instead. His point was that since we were no longer walking out into the tree fields to cut down our own pine (since I now refuse to buy the dry, prickly, Kansas born and raised trees), there was really no point to go the tree farm. Since we started the white pine trend, I've insisted that we continue to go just for the ambiance, but Chad pointed out that the ambiance was ruined by this old guy who works there who seriously tries to recruit Chad to work at his business every single year. It was really annoying, and since Chad spent our whole tree farm visit trying to avoid this dude, I decided I'd concede and we'd try a town tree instead.

We ended up stopping at the first store down the street from our church that had a huge selection of trees, which happened to be the Ace hardware store. They had TONS of white pines (compared to only 2 white pines at the tree farm last year) and we were able to pick out a perfect one in just a few minutes. The added benefit that we didn't anticipate was the cost--the pines at the hardware store were only $22. We paid around $70 at the tree farm last year and really had no idea we'd been overcharged so much!

So our afternoon was spent decorating the tree, with a little help from the dogs, who did a great job supervising. While I haven't figured out where I want the rest of the decorations to go yet (and I might need to go buy some more Christmas decor since there's more space to cover in the new house), the tree is at least finished now, and I think it looks pretty nice!


It feels good to be a little more on top of my Christmas preparations this year than in the past! I may not have much of the Christmas shopping done, but at least I have the tree up and the cards started!

Turkey Day Triumph

We had a lovely Thanksgiving lunch today with our moms, and while it wasn't the most stellar meal I've ever fixed, it was still darn tasty. After leftovers for dinner I'm still pretty darn stuffed, so between the overeating and the football watching this evening, I'd say it's been a pretty successful Thanksgiving. To top it off, this evening while watching football, I actually wrote our annual Christmas letter--at least 3 weeks earlier than normal! I'm so proud of myself for not procrastinating, although it's sort of out of necessity. I never sent out change of address information to our family and friends, so I'm trying to get our Christmas cards out early so that everyone else can change our address on their own Christmas list!

As I wrote our letter tonight, I realized how much the house shopping/packing/moving/settling consumed our year in 2009. It was seriously the shortest Christmas letter I've written in years! I didn't realize how boring and non-eventful our year had been until I saw it in its entirety!

With that said, I realized there was one fun event that I never did get around to blogging about since it was right in the midst of our busy home shopping season. Hopefully during this wonderful long weekend I'll be able to get to that story and edit the pictures!